Wake up sleepy head – it’s the weekend! After all the hard work of the week it’s time to let your hair down and get going with the good times. Gigantic brings you the #NewMusicFriday blog and playlist – the ultimate soundtrack to your days off. We have the hottest new tracks, a little info about them plus the chance to grab tickets to hear your new favourite tune being played live.
IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE – ‘Doko Mien’
“Music is a universal language, but spoken language can help you think about what makes you emotional, what makes you feel certain feelings, what you want to see in the world” – Eno Williams
Ibibio Sound Machine is the awesome afrobeat project bringing in a wide range of influences including rock, disco and electronica as heard on their critically acclaimed albums; their eponymously titled debut plus their second record ‘Uyai’. On their third outing ‘Doko Mien’, they have started tapping into Nigerian folk stories in a culture mesh that encompasses West African traditions and London life. Singing in both English and Ibibio, the polyglot vocals pull together seamlessly as part of the universal musical language singer Eno Williams is hoping to create.
Ibibio Sound Machine tickets are currently available.
WALLOWS – ‘Nothing Happens’
For many young bands, the release of their debut album is more than just making music. It’s a coming of age which documents that special time a group of friends have found the ability to define who they are and express it to the world. ‘Nothing Happens’ is the first LP from San Franciscan trio Wallows who are Cole Preston (drums), Braeden Lemasters (vocals/guitar) and Dylan Minnette (vocals/guitar). Where some may stumble at the first step, Wallows have already excelled themselves on this debut album and set the bar very high for what else is to come in the future.
Having first formed when they were aged only eleven years old, the childhood friends have poured a lifetime of experiences complete with all those important first heartbreaks, initial uncertainties and bursts of excitement into 11 tracks of gorgeous sun-kissed indie pop.
“It feels really great. The album is something that we’ve been looking forward to for a decade and it’s really trippy that it’s happening so soon. It’s been like the longest build up of all time.” – Cole Preston
Wallows tickets are currently available.
LA DISPUTE – ‘Panorama’
Michigan post-hardcore band La Dispute never fail to be a compelling listen, owing to their lyrical depth which threads through complex song writing that never quite falls neatly into one camp or genre. They yet again perfectly capture a sense of foreboding and existential angst on their new LP ‘Panorama’ which is their first outing with Epitaph Records.
‘Panorama’ sees vocalist Jordan Dreyer return to the semi-autobiographical style found on their previous work. Drawing on their punk ethic as a starting block, La Dispute have once again crafted a genre-defying album which taps into spoken word and post rock on an album which explores themes of grief, anxiety and the various external sources of relief people look to in order to keep going.
“I feel like everybody has their thing, whether it’s their religion, or music they listen to. I feel like everybody has this cloud of despair hanging over, like the inevitability of our death. People seek external ways to feel comfortable with their eventual fate and the fates of the people around them.” – Jordan Dreyer
La Dispute tickets are currently available.
NILÜFER YANYA – ‘Miss Universe’
Daring pop-rock songwriter Nilüfer Yanya has been cropping up on everyone’s radar and the wait for her first full length record is finally over. Somewhat centred around guitar but certainly not afraid to experiment, London-based Yanya has just dropped her debut album ‘Miss Universe’.
"I'm not really interested in making a genre or a style of music. Different songs need different things in them and they kind of all go in different directions, and I'm more interested in seeing how far the song can go than being like, 'Uh, the album needs this sound,' or 'I need to create something that all sounds like this,' which is really cool when you get into it, but maybe I just haven't found what that is yet, as well. To me, it's more interesting to just write a song and see what happens."
Yanya has certain succeeded in creating a record which wanders freely wherever it chooses. On ‘Miss Universe’, lively songs like ‘Tears’, the mighty single ‘In Your Head’ and ‘Heat Rises’ are met with chilled numbers like ‘Melt’ and ‘Paradise’ all glued together by quick tracks here and there which seem to set the scene of the whole thing being set in some sort of lift on a dangerous industrial site. Wait, does that mean that it’s a concept album then?
Nilüfer Yanya tickets are currently available.
THESE NEW PURITANS – ‘Inside The Rose’
Combing everything from break beat to neo-classical influences, samples of Czech woodwind instrumentation and post rock; it’s fair to say that These New Puritans are one of the most innovative British bands for a generation. Formed in 2006 by twin brothers Jack and George Barnett, the Southend-on-Sea have steadily built their cult following amongst discerning listeners and now they are back with their accomplished fourth album ‘Inside The Rose’.
Recorded in Berlin, a city long known for its creative freedom and pioneering forays into the many forms of electronica, the Barnett boys have created an intriguing and lush 40-minute listening containing just nine tracks which unfold in the most wonderfully unexpected way. ‘Beyond Black Suns’ starts with oppressive beats to rise with operatic vocal accompaniment, ‘Where the Trees Are On Fire’ is perhaps Jack’s most natural singing performance and feels like an actor breaking the fourth wall in some haunting musical and ‘Anti-Gravity’ draws on oriental influences for its spacious dark wave synth sound like a lost scrap of soundtrack from Bladerunner.
“My favourite kind of music is very clear but also mysterious at the same time. If you have a strange idea always present it in the clearest possible way. Don’t mess about with pretentious abstract rubbish, that’s the kind of thing we don’t relate to. A lot of the time George takes what I’ve come up with and nudges me in a certain way. Many of the vocals were completely different. The usual thing that would happen was I would play him a vocal that I had recorded, then he would listen to it for ten seconds then press stop and not say anything. And that’s when I knew that it wasn’t quite right and I would go back and do something else. Being brothers and working in music means there are no niceties. We can be absolutely brutal to each other, but in a way. It’s okay because you can’t be sensitive about it, you can’t be precious. You get past all the niceties and you get to the heart of things.” – Jack Barnett